AN ANTICYCLONE, OR WAVE OF HIGH BAROMETRIC PRESSURE FROM THE NORTHWEST. planting a cordon of weather observatories in In addition to the daily international charts published by the Chief Signal Officer, he has begun the issue of monthly international charts of the northern hemisphere, displaying the monthly ocean-storm tracks, the average lines of equal barometric pressure, the wind-zones, isothermals, etc. These charts are published in the "Monthly Weather Review," a journal sent to all observers, on land and sea, who co operate with the Signal Office in its international research. To aid shipmasters of every flag in keeping their instruments correct, the Chief Signal Officer has also placed standard barometers at the ports of New York, San Francisco, and elsewhere, for reference and comparison. Without pecuniary charge to for eign or American ships, their barometers, on application to the signal offices at these ports, are carefully tested, adjusted, and corrected for effective use at sea. With the extension and collation of the international weather-reports, we may hope, as General Myer has said, that "the questions as to the translations of storms from continent to continent, and of the times and directions they may take in such movements; the movement of areas of high and low barometer; the conditions of temperature, pressure, etc., existing around the earth at a fixed instant of time; as well as questions of climatology and others bearing upon the prediction of weather-changes far in advance of the time at which these changes happen, or queries as to the character of coming seasons, may be settled." If the Signal Service undertook no other duty, but, discarding prognostications, limited its scope of researches to this international collection of materials for the construction of the sciences of meteorology and climatology, it is not too much to say that the harvest of observational data thus garnered would ultimately be worth all the labor and expense the Service has cost the Government. But, to secure such results, it can not be too widely or urgently insisted on that navigators, ship-owners, steamship companies, and all naval officers should use their earnest efforts and influence to obtain simultaneous weather-reports from all sea-going steamers and sailing vessels. The ablest scientific journal of Great Britain, "Nature," recently said that it earnestly hopes that the navies and the mercantile vessels of all nations will soon join in carrying out this magnificent scheme of observations, originated by the Americans in 1873, and since then further developed and carried on by them with the greatest ability and success. Sentiments similar in effect were expressed at the International Meteorological Congress convened in Rome, Italy, in April, 1879. the Chief Signal Officer to passing ships, or to convey to him any facts which may be of use to the Washington office. The telegraphic wires connect each station with the War Department. The weather reports and observations on the indications of the sea thus obtained are often of the greatest value to the Washington office in its work of preannouncing the force, direction, and velocity of the great hurricanes from the West Indies, which impinge upon our Atlantic seaboard and sweep the sail whitened waters on the eastern side of the United States. As an illustration of this, it may suffice to note the ocean conditions which the Coast Signal Service telegraphs to the Chief Signal Office thrice daily, and oftener if need be. It has long been known by meteorologists that marine cyclones foreannounce their movements by a storm-wave formed in the central part of the barometric depression, where, the attenuation of the atmosphere being much greater than on the outer circles, the circumferential pressure serves to head up the water of the sea. "When living on the Bermuda Islands," says General Reid, the eminent investigator of storm-phenomena, "I was frequently interested by observing the change of direction in the surf beating against their shores. A coming storm would roll its undulations so as to break upon the south and southwest side of these Atlantic islands; and, as gales proceeded northward, the sea was seen breaking on their northern reefs." The "cyclone-rollers," as Piddington observed, may be "felt at a great distance from storms"; and, as he shows, even a ship far out at sea, if her commander will carefully note the swell of the ocean, may be forewarned of an approaching gale. Both of these inves The Coast Signal Service is another important arm of the organization. By act of Congress, the Secretary of War was authorized to establish signal stations at the lighthouses and life-saving stations on the lakes and seacoasts, and to connect these signal stations with telegraph-lines, to be constructed, maintained, and worked under the direction of the Chief Sig-tigators give abundant evidence that the pecunal Officer of the Army; and the use made of the life-saving stations is subject to such regulations as are fixed upon by the Chief Signal Officer, the Secretary of War, and the Secretary of the Treasury. By this cooperative arrangement, the Signal Service has become a valuable if not an indispensable auxiliary to the sister services with which it connects, and shares very materially in the labors and responsibilities especially of the Life-Saving Service. The coast signal stations aim to warn vessels within signaling distance of the approach of storms, and to give the life-saving stations quick notice of marine disasters calling for rescue, as also to furnish any intelligence to the latter, or to the lighthouses, which may insure their more efficient working. Connected by wire or submarine cable, as all the signal stations on the coast are, from Sandy Hook, N. J., to Smithville, N. C., and connected similarly with the office of the Chief Signal Officer at Washington, whence they are kept advised of any change in the meteorological status, they are thus enabled, from their full ocean view, to communicate directly any warnings from liar ocean-swell "is often felt at 10° or 15° (600 to 900 miles) of distance" from the tempest. In the summer of 1873, when the great August hurricane which so furiously assailed and wrecked several hundred sail, was still passing over the Bermudas, its long dead swell was outrunning its center by 600 miles, driving in the bathers at Long Branch and pouring into New York Bay. The steamer Albe marle encountered its forerunning wave on het voyage from Halifax to the Bermudas; and, though the morning was fair, suspecting danger, the vessel was hove to for a few hours to examine the swell. Concluding that the hurricane was advancing directly upon him, her captain changed his course from southerly to westerly, and by a slight détour eluded the gale. As one by one, yet all independently, the coast signal observers on any day telegraphi to the central office the same significant tidings of the ocean-indications of an Atlantic gale-the intensity and direction of the swell— their concurrent observations often present unmistakable proofs of the presence, course, and progressive rate of these menacing meteors. The intelligence thus afforded is indispen sable to the storm-warning and weatherprediction work of the Washington authorities. But, apart from the meteorological value of such a Coast Signal Service, its incidental contributions to the life-saving stations have already proved of the greatest assistance. On the 224 of March, 1877, after a severe storm on the middle Atlantic coast, Sergeant William Stein of the Signal Service, in charge of the Cape Henry station, discovered before dawn a large vessel stranded on a shoal off that station, and summoned the wreckers at Norfolk to come to the rescue. With the earliest light the Sergeant displayed the "attention-flags " of the international code, with which every seacoast signal station is supplied; and, receiving answer that she was the Winchester of Liverpool, with request for two steam-tugs to be sent to the vessel, he telegraphed at once to Norfolk for wrecking-steamers. Before sundown active efforts were made to save the stranded vessel. She was gotten off the shoal after some days' labor; but meantime three other vessels, in a second storm (of the 25th), were stranded within a mile of her. Sergeant Stein again telegraphed the wreckers at Norfolk for aid. He ascertained the name of the bark in greatest peril to be the Pantzer, a Norwegian vessel, and the crew of the Life-Saving Service a little later succeeded in firing a lifeline over her deck. The Norwegians did not comprehend its use; but after some effort the Signal Service officer, by means of international signals, instructed her crew to "haul in on the line," and by nine o'clock all the crew of the Pantzer were safely landed. In the wrecks of the steamships L'Amérique, Rusland, and Huron (of the United States Navy), the first tidings were conveyed by the Signal Service wires, and through them succor was speedily summoned. In the case of the Huron, drifted ashore near Kittyhawk, a private of the Signal Service, A. T. Sherwood, stationed at that place, received the first intelligence November THE SIGNAL SERVICE STATION AT CAPE HENRY SIGNALING TO THE STRANDED BARK PANTZER. 23d, and, after telegraphing to Washington, hastened to the awful scene, walking sixteen miles through the sand, and brought full reports of the situation to his station, which were instantly telegraphed to the Chief Signal Officer. The War and Navy Departments and the Life-Saving Service were thus notified, and by them steamers of the navy and wrecking companies were started to the fatal point of the shore on which the Huron had gone to pieces. The Kittyhawk observer, immediately on receiving orders from the Chief Signal Officer, opened a "wreck-station" abreast of the foundered vessel before daylight of the 25th, connecting it by a temporary telegraphwire with his station, and, working this improvised station on the open beach, while the gale was yet raging, drew toward the spot the whole organized relief force of the Government. A similar service was performed on the stormy night of January 31, 1878, by another private soldier of the Signal Corps, William Davis, when the steamship Metropolis, with 248 souls on board, became a total wreck twenty miles from Kittyhawk station. At 6.55 P. M. on that night intelligence of the disaster reached Kittyhawk, and in less than fifteen minutes private Davis, carrying telegraphic and signal apparatus, was riding through the night and storm to the scene. By 4 A. M. he had reached the vessel, established his telegraph station abreast of her, opened communication, and forwarded a report to the Chief Signal Office at Washington, and was putting in motion all the machinery of relief and succor which the country could command. The observers of the coast signal stations, whenever it is practicable, board vessels that have gone ashore, and open communication with the land. An instance of this may be cited from the action of private Harrison of the Signal Corps, at Cape Henry, when the bark Giuseppe Massonne was wrecked near that station, February 10, 1878. His presence prevented the crew from deserting their ship, which, by the aid of powerful wrecking steamers, was subsequently saved. Other instances of boarding vessels could be cited, as those of the Italian bark Francesco Bellagamba and the British steamship Antonio, both boarded by Signal Service men who afterward kept up signal conversation with the shore until the ships were saved. But these cases will suffice to show the immense share the Coast Signal Service has in the results announced by the Life-Saving Service. Without the Signal Service cooperation, the latter would often, in emergencies that arise, be powerless to command the needed help, as well as to communicate with stranded vessels. For the latter service, only men drilled in signaling can avail. So arranged is the Coast Signal Service, that not only are its storm-flags and danger-warnings visible by vessels moving off the coast, but even a vessel en voyage (say one which is bound from the equator to New York), as she passes Cape Henlopen, may inquire by signals whether any hurricane is impending; if so, whether she has time to reach Sandy Hook before its arrival, or must take shelter behind the Delaware Break water. Or, a vessel bound from New York or any northern port southward, on reaching the Capes of the Delaware, can make inquiry as to whether any storm is likely to strike her before she can pass Cape Hatteras, and receive full advice by telegraph from the Chief Signal Office at Washington, in a very brief time. With adequate appropriations, this Coast Signal Service could easily be made of far greater value to all the shipping and mercantile interests. As the Chief Signal Officer has said, "The time is not far distant when the possession of a coast not covered by seacoast storm-signal and Signal Service stations, watching as sentinels each its own beat of sea and shore, and ready to summon aid by electric wires, will be held as much an evidence of semi-barbarism, as is now among civilized nations the holding of any national coast without a system of lighthouse lights." In the event of war, with a completed chain of coast BARNEGAT ATLANTIC CITY CAPE MAY DEL.BREAKWATER OCEAN CITY CHINCOTEAGUE CAPE HENRY FALSE CAPE KITTYHAWK CAPE HATTERAS PORTSMOUTH 38 signal stations, no part of our exposed sea-front could be threatened without immediate intelligence of the fact being flashed to the Washington office and all along the coast, and the defensive power of the Government concentrated at the point endangered. The chain of telegraphic seacoast stations at present is 610 miles long, stretching from Sandy Hook to the mouth of Cape Fear River. The Signal Service Telegraph System, constructed, owned, and operated by the Signal Service, covers, however, a much larger area than the seacoast mentioned. In pursuance of acts of Congress, this service has now completed in the interior and upon the frontier an extensive network of telegraphic lines for connecting military posts, with a view to the protection of the population from Indian depredations, and the rendition of meteorological, military, and other reports to the Government. A total length of 4,000 miles of frontier line is now operated and maintained by the Signal Corps. This connected system of telegraph-lines is one of the most effective safeguards against Indian raids 36 and warlike movements, since it enables the scattered military forces of the United States to obtain timely notice of such movements, and to concentrate quickly at any threatened point to repel attack. The Indian strategy is to pass between the Government army posts unobserved, so that their plans may not be reported-a very difficult thing in a region traversed by electric wires. To break them is to announce their purpose and betray themselves, alarming the posts and settlements on both sides of the break, and evoking spirited pursuit and severe punishment by the troops. As an engine of civilization the frontier telegraph rivals the railway, enabling the Government to throw an ægis of protection over the rapidly expanding wave of Western emigration, and thus facilitating no doubt the sale and settlement, as well as the material development, of the public lands. These Signal Service lines are in part self-supporting, as they transmit not only Government but private telegrams of the civilian population, and save the expense of telegraphing by other lines the meteorological reports necessary for the weather - work at Washington, besides serving to convey a great number of official dispatches and correspondence for various departments of the Government, that would otherwise have to be transmitted at considerable cost on non-governmental lines or sent by couriers. But, apart from all the incidental benefits and economies wrought by this frontier telegraph system, its value in the scientific work of the Weather Bureau proper is felt to be the greatest. The lines in Texas have made it possible to furnish weather-reports daily on the coast of that State; and those in the Northwest permit a series of observations and reports not otherwise attainable, which are of the first importance for all purposes of weather-prediotion throughout the United States. Meager as the data now obtainable from the Northwest are, they are indispensable for the processes of weather-telegraphy in the Mississippi Valley and lake region. To study these momentous meteorological agencies, and to receive timely notice of their arrival on the extreme northwestern frontier, is perhaps the most important task, so far as weather-prognostication goes, that the Signal Service could pursue. The extension of its telegraphic and observational stations in this direction would immensely enhance its general effectiveness, and give a fresh stimulus to almost every meteorological investigation which the Service is now pushing. The length of Signal Service telegraph-lines in the interior and on the frontier at present is as follows: Arizona Division, 934 miles, with 17 stations, from 12 of which weather-reports are received at Washington; New Mexico Division, 486 miles, with 12 stations, from 6 of which reports are daily received; Texas Division, 1,590 miles, with 28 stations, 25 of which telegraph full meteorological reports; the Northwestern Division, 921 miles, with 18 stations; and the Washington Territory Division, 69 miles, with 2 stations; total, 4,000 miles, with 77 stations. In concluding this necessarily much condensed sketch of the national weather service, its pressing wants should not be overlooked. No other service appeals so strongly to the interests which it daily subserves for intelligent cooperation. The public press can do much to advance its development by systematic republication and explanation of its observations and VOL. XIX.-52 A deductions, and especially by reproducing the data furnished in its "Monthly Weather Review," and in the daily telegraphic "Synopsis." Time and toil are necessary to harvest the fruit of seeds sown; but, as the President of the American Geographical Society, Chief Justice Daly, has said, "Nothing in the nature of scientific investigation by the national Government has proved so acceptable to the people, or has been productive in so short a time of such important results, as the establishment of the Signal Service Bureau." Like a little army, however, which has fought its way to a commanding yet difficult position, its ranks must be recruited and its resources be augmented before it can push its conquests forward or reap what it has sown. SOUTH CAROLINA. By a letter dated February 24, 1879, addressed to LieutenantGovernor Simpson as acting Governor, Wade Hampton resigned his office of Governor of South Carolina. On the 26th W. D. Simpson was formally sworn in and installed as Governor of the State. On the same day Governor Simpson commissioned Mr. Hampton as United States Senator from South Carolina, to which office the two Houses of the Legislature at the November session of 1878 had elected him by a unanimous vote. For the regular session of 1879, the Legislature met at Columbia on November 25th. On December 10th the two Houses convened in joint assembly to elect an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in the place of A. C. Haskell, who at the beginning of that month had resigned. The candidates were Samuel McGowan of Abbeville and W. D. Wallace of Union. Mr. McGowan was elected by a majority of three, the vote having stood 76 and 73 respectively. The joint convention then proceeded to ballot for the election of a Chief Justice of that Court for six years. Henry Molver, one of the two Associate Justices, was unanimously elected, having received all of the 146 Votes then cast. On December 15th Judge McIver declined the office, and the two Houses met together again on the 18th. Governor Simpson received 131 votes, the whole number cast, and was elected. In regard to the vacancy of this seat as occurring in 1880, there is a decided disagreement between its present occupant, Chief Justice Willard, and the State Legislature. He was elected by the Legislature of 1877 upon the office becoming vacant by the death of Judge Moses; and while the Legislature of 1879 was formally electing his successor, he plainly declared, as he has also done since, that no vacancy of his office is to occur in 1880; that he was elected in 1877 for the full term of six years; that the Legislature, according to the State Constitution, has no legal power to elect his successor before the expiration of his sexennial term; and that he is determined to keep his seat after August 1, 1880, leaving to the now elected Chief Justice the task of dispossessing him of it on a writ of |